On Friday 2 January 2015. I was in Ikea making my way to meet my son at the checkout area, a lady threw something in my face I retaliated by hitting her , she then hit me. I was taken to the Police station and a caution was given.

The police officer said based on the bird eye view, I was the aggressor. The CCTV scan showed her saying something to me, this was not questioned. Bird's eye view is from above, also she apparently was red and bleeding. I sustained some lacerations to my face, but I am black and therefore my injuries were not apparent to the officer. He did not question me just to say 'what's your name?'. When I responded 'sorry' he said you are being difficult and we will take this down to the station. I was duly placed in a police van and taken down to the station.Spoke briefly with a solicitor over the phone who said she was representing me, this was around 7pm. I did not see her again until near mid night.

Customer:replied 1 year ago.

I was told that if I changed what was said later one, it would not be accepted, also with the bird eye view, it does not show her throwing some thing in my face, althought the Ikea staff had to sweep whatever it was, off the floor. With the mind games I was subjected to whilst I was at the police station,If we had both been white would we have been given a warning, why was I the only one taken down to the police station? Is it because I am Black?

He is not allowed to question you on the street. That is a street interview which is prohibited under PACE. He would have questioned you in interview.I'm really sorry but you have to be realistic. I know that bruising and reddening on non white skin is not as visible upon white skin but skin colour doesn't hide lacerations.In any event, if it is just that she threw something in your face I'm afraid striking her was not self defence but an act of punishment. I realise that she did provoke the situation but unfortunately there are people like that in the world. Self defence is a very narrow defence allowing you to do exactly and only what you need to do is stop further offences and you were always free to move away from her.In terms of your solicitor, the reason you didn't see her again until midnight is that the police were not ready to interview you until much later. The early turn would have arrested you and the new turn taken over which is the cause of the delay. Actually a five hour turn around is fairly good by police station standards.Cautions are like guilty pleas. You were cautioned because you admitted the offence interview.The only challenge to them is judicial review. That will cost in excess of £2k and there is no legal aid. There are also no real grounds here as you admitted the offence unless you said something entirely different to what you have said above.I'm very sorry but that is the reality.Can I clarify anything for you?Jo

Well, the arrest upon you was lawful as you did commit an offence.Whether or not she should have been arrested as well depends. I presume you didn't call the police and you don't seem to be describing making an allegation against her and anyway CCTV doesn't support it.There is an argument that where counter allegations are made they should arrest both parties but I'm not sure this is the best example. Ultimately she had injuries, she made an allegation and that leads to an arrest.

You are well versed and know your job well, fortunately or unfortunately sometimes one fail to see or understand that others might not be as clued up as you are and allowance not made, what I mean by this is that only by looking back over your answers was I aware that I could have made a counter allegation against the other person at the time, as one had pointed this out to me at any time,I did not learn until much later that I could have refused to accept the caution.

I was not being negative, I did state you are very good at your job, however sometimes they fail to see

Customer:replied 1 year ago.

if you feel you are unable to continue with this then you no doubt can understand the way I feel and still feel because I feel I was not given the right representation in order to have made an informed choice whereas yours is simply ego!!

Ask a Solicitor

Get a Professional Answer. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.

58 Solicitors are Online Now

Type Your Law Question Here...

characters left:

Disclaimer: Information in questions, answers, and other posts on this site ("Posts") comes from individual users, not JustAnswer; JustAnswer is not responsible for Posts. Posts are for general information, are not intended to substitute for informed professional advice (medical, legal, veterinary, financial, etc.), or to establish a professional-client relationship. The site and services are provided "as is" with no warranty or representations by JustAnswer regarding the qualifications of Experts. To see what credentials have been verified by a third-party service, please click on the "Verified" symbol in some Experts' profiles. JustAnswer is not intended or designed for EMERGENCY questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals.